So I got up super early and drove to the hospital.  I was told to park there since the bus stop is next door.  Riding an old motor bike in the dark with bad headlights is sketchy, especially when you come upon a dog sleeping in the middle of the road.  Dogs are a major source of motorbike accidents in Thailand.  There was no one at the bus stop at 6:30.  There were a three kids there by 7:00am.  So, I was obviously told the wrong time.  Was it a joke on the foreigner?  Oh well, at least I wasn’t late for the bus.  It was a big loud bus full of students.  There were adults too, but mostly students.  The bus honked at everything that moved and as it was approaching every stop.  It was standing room only by the time we got to the bus station in Tak.  It was nice to see a teenage boy give up his seat next to me for someone else.  It’s typical for younger people to give up their seats for older people.  I then had to change to a mini van to get to Mae Sot.  The seats on the mini van were tiny and every seat was full.  It was a very interesting drive.  The roads were steep and very curvy.  Of in the distance you could see row and row of mountains (shadows of mountains really since it’s so smoky here).  We drove through several national parks so there was nothing but jungle.  The steepness of the roads reminded me of Colorado, if Colorado had jungle.

We went through 3 police check points.  I found that odd.  At the 3rd one, a policeman checked IDs.  I wondered what they were looking for.    Drugs, gems, poachers?  When we got to Mae Sot I got a motorbike taxi to my hotel, well to the wrong hotel and then to the right one.  This was foreshadowing for my afternoon.  Mae Sot looks different than anything else I’ve seen in Thailand.  I can’t quite identify what it is that is different.  It’s a border town near Myanmar and has a large concentration of hill tribes, Karen and Hmong.  It also has a large Muslim population and Chinese population.  The only thing I can figure is these influences made tiny differences in buildings, streets, clothing, etc and creates a distinct, but indescribable difference.  I tried to define it or capture it in a picture but i just can’t.

I got to my hotel and I didn’t want to leave.  I was overcome with a strong feeling of “I like Mae Sot” combined with “I hate it here”.   There was a lot of fear and I just wanted to crawl in bed and hide.  I watched tv for awhile and tried to find a phone store on google maps.  I tried to convince myself that it was ok if I locked myself in my room all weekend.  The part of me that needs a new phone and reliable wifi won.  The hotel had bicycles I could use for free and “how do I rent a motorbike” was not being understood.  So, I took the bicycle into town on a wild goose chase sponsored by google maps.  The first place  it took me was a Tesco which are like Walmarts here.  They usually have other stores around them including phone stores.  I went in and there were only two rows of shelves with stuff on them.  It was creepy.  The next place didn’t seem to exist.  It kept taking me down roads that I swear were in the wrong direction.  I had no idea where I was.  The streets are narrow, full of cars, bicycles and motorbikes.  Terrifying and fabulous all at the same time.  There’s that mix of opposites again.  There are stores and delivery trucks everywhere.  The variety of things being sold and/or delivered was mindblowing.  I still can’t process it and I saw it.  The third place I went was a print shop.  A guy across the street was drunk and bathing with a hose, fully clothed.  Then he came over and sat in front of the print shop and then back across the street.  Back and forth, soaking wet.  I decided this would be a good time to go eat.  The combination of Lonely Planet guide book and google maps got me to a Canadian restaurant that boasted having cheese.  I tried to regroup.  I had a cheese burger and fries.  I got a hold of the phone company by Line (a text program widely used in SE Asia) and they told me there was a store in Robinsons and one in a different Tesco.  Some British people eating next to me told me where the other Tesco was.

I have  a new resolve to get this phone since I don’t want to go through this again tomorrow.  On my way to Tesco, I stopped for a pedicure.  She tried to get rid of my ingrown toenails which I usually don’t mind because they drive me nuts, but she cut too deep and my toe bled and still hurts hours later.  So, now I’m grumpy, scared, hot, lost and injured.  I found the dtac store and no one speaks English.  I try using my phrase book and the guy behind the counter pulls out his phone and has me speak into it.  It translates what I said to Thai.  It doesn’t do the best job of translating.  Some of the things he said got translated horribly to English, but it was enough to get a new phone that can be a mobile hot spot and to get a data package paid for.  And I asked him to download the translator app too – google translator, who knew?  Now, hopefully, it works at my house!  I went back to the hotel and locked myself in.  I tried to nap, but couldn’t.  Around 8:00pm I decided I needed to go out and eat and see if I could get a massage.  I used my new translator to ask where to go for a massage.  They said 2 hours in my room for 500baht ($14).  Deal!  Who needs dinner?

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore